The present invention relates to an air purification system, in particular for vehicles or airplanes or other means of transport.
Particularly for the interior of a vehicle, it is of great importance to generate clean air, in particular air that is substantially free of germs and contains no organic pollutants, especially to ensure the well-being of the vehicle occupants and thus also to ensure a high level of safety of the vehicle. There is therefore a great economic interest in purifying the air inside a vehicle inexpensively and effectively and, in particular, using a compact device that can be produced at low cost and can be run with relatively little power consumption. Known devices for purifying air include ozone generators, filter systems, air ionizers and the like. Filter systems are in principle suitable only for separating fairly large particulate air components (dust, pollen, microorganisms). They have the disadvantage that the filters have to be regularly replaced or regenerated.
In catalytic air purification by means of titanium dioxide, hydroxyl radicals OH− and super oxides O2− are formed by a photochemical reaction. All organic trace element molecules or air pollutant molecules are completely oxidized in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, i.e. an as it were cold combustion reaction of atmospheric oxygen takes place with formation of carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) and, if appropriate, other non-toxic products. A decomposition/conversion of the pollutants takes place at the same time.
Disadvantages of known methods of photocatalytic air purification lie in their low efficiency, particularly on account of a small reaction surface in the reaction space, of the resulting need for a longer dwell time in the reaction space, of a less complete reaction and the discharge of (most of the) primary products with the air stream.